WHY:
CEASE (Community Empowerment and Surveillance Enterprise) has been
active since November 2017. It is a surveillance team consisting
of civilian volunteers who are very active in the community and
wish to make a difference. Since the start of CEASE, there have
been 22 operations which have resulted in sixteen arrests and over
650 hours of volunteer hours donated to the city of Los Angeles.
CEASE is the brainchild of North Hollywood Captain III Donald
Graham who started his own volunteer surveillance team in the 90s
while working Devonshire division. It's a way for citizens to
become more involved in their community and to provide additional
resources for the LAPD due to combat crime. The safety is of
utmost concern and no member of a volunteer surveillance team
within LAPD has ever been injured. In addition to CEASE, LAPD North
Hollywood division has recently started their volunteer patrol
program. This program consists of volunteers (all current CEASE
members) who patrol North Hollywood division in a volunteer uniform
and driving a marked LAPD vehicle to address quality of life issues
and to act as crime suppression.

While still in it's infancy, this program will be ramping up soon
as 18 volunteers from the CEASE program have received training.
This program will notify the city and officers about such problems
as raised/damaged sidewalks, obstructed street signs, and other
quality of life issues. Their presence in the community will also
act as a crime deterrent due to their high visibility. To date,
the volunteers have documented 95 qualify of life issues in the
community. Most of issues have been given to the responsible city
entity and have already been or are in the process of being
addressed. This helps to improve the quality of life for all the
residents of the community. For more information, please contact
Officer John Antonioli, North Hollywood Area at (818) 754-8470 or
email 36968@lapd.online.